Thursday, 26 November 2009

Match Slowly Turning Into A Test

Just a day ago, when the Indian batting line up saw as many as five scores above 50, out of which three had scored hundreds, the match was thought to be just another boring draw. But, only to be mistaken. For, the pitch was found to deteriorate on the second day of the test match itself when the remaining eight Indian batsmen could amass just above 200 runs to finish the innings at 642 losing all their 10 wickets. The run-rate at the end of the first day's play read just below 5.0 an over which at the end of the innings reduced to 4.16 to be exact.

Things that followed were just that can be expected an an ideal test match. It looked as though the Sri lankan batsmen were deceived by the pitch when they had assumed the pitch to be a batsman's paradise only to kick themselves at the end of the day. However, things weren't too tough for the Sri Lankan batsmen when they had 9 wickets still to go despite Tilekeratne Dilshan getting out for a duck. Moreover, spin bowlers like Muralitharan were found getting a lot of turn at the fag end of the first innings of team India's batting and so was the way the fast bowlers when they found getting a bit of swing.

This has at present givn the Sri Lankan batting line up consisting of the two Jayawardanes in addition to Samaraweera and Sangakkara a warning not to take the pitch for granted after the Indian batsmen made most out of their first batting after winning the toss. However, not to be mistaken, this was not the way things were going on on the first day's play. Not only that the Indian batsmen viz Gambhir, Sehwag and Dravid got quick runs but also the bowlers were struggling to get some movement off the seam. This is quite evident from the fact that someone like Dravid could maintain a run-rate of 4.0 an over who has made a name "The Wall" for himself.

Finally, after a long time one can expect a test match that can assure a result. The last time India played a test match was against New Zealand in march-April which India won 1-0 in the three match test series. After India had won the first test by 10 wickets, the second test was just another run accumulator with New Zealand belting 613 runs that followed with India 305 and then 476 after allowed to follow on. The third one saw India having an upperhand with New Zealand just avoiding follow-on and also the defeat by a whisker when they were just 2 wickets away from losing the series/test with the scorecard reading 281/8. Atleast now, a test match giving a result can be thought about.